Dog Found Hours After Tornado Trapped Under Heavy Debris

When a tornado suddenly hit Hickman, Kentucky this past week, one resident was stunned as he watched trees being wiped out, his barn destroyed, and the roof of his shop peeled off in an instant.

But none of that mattered the moment he realized the family dog, Rocky, had been outside when the tornado hit. “It’s just amazing, you know, you just never experienced anything like that,” owner Don Lattus said. “It got still and just a wham, bam, hardest you could think of anything ever hitting you in the face. In about eight seconds it raised up and over, and you know it went from good to bad.”

Photo by WPSD

Rocky had been outside in a fenced-in area on the property, but when Lattus was finally able to check, the gates had been ripped open and Rocky was gone. “I thought he might have got out with all the gates open,” says Lattus. “I said shoot he’s gone somewhere you know, he took off.”

The next morning, Lattus and his daughter, Carrie Miesner, went out searching for their dog and were overjoyed when they finally found Rocky trapped under hundreds of pounds of debris but alive. “It was scary,” says Miesner. “It really was because I had actually though he had passed away and so when I actually got to see him and he looked at me, I was just excited.”

Photo by WPSD

“He was pinned underneath this wall right here,” said Lattus. “His back legs were laying on that. You see where he scratched his back legs. We pulled this off of him. His back feet were sticking back, and his head was sticking out right here.” Three men managed to lift the rubble off Rocky, and they were amazed as he got up on his own. “He actually got up on his own, walked around and used the restroom,” said Miesner. “Once he walked around for just a little bit, he just kind of collapsed.”

They rushed Rocky to the vet, where he was examined but was thankfully unharmed and is scheduled to go home after recuperating for a few days. “He just put his head right in my shoulder and on my chest, and just set there for a little while,” said Miesner. “You could kind of tell that he wanted to make sure that he was okay.”

Photo by WPSD

How would you react if you found your dog alive after such a violent tornado? Let us know what you think in the comments below and please SHARE this with friends on Facebook.